Stop mechanism for knitting machines



NOV. 10, 1931. 5 SHELMlRE 1,831,200

STOP MECHANISM FOR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Dec. 23, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 l/IVENTOR WITNESS:

Now 10, 1931. s. R. SHELMIRE 1,331,200

STOP MECHANISM FOR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Dec. 23, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1 1 Y 86 iFASTiMOSd.

J F P. L.1 H

i i i i J8 6'4 52 5 0 :1 I 70 5-6 60 3 I, 46 5' W/rA/Ess: M/ytwrm? wfifl ii 62477.16; Rye/m ,4 ORA E KS Patented Nov. 10, 1931 UNITED STATE-LS PATENT OFFICE STANLEY R. SHELMIRE, OF WILMINGTON, DELAVIARE, ASSIGNOR TO STANDARD TRUMP BROS. MACHINE COMPANY, OF WILMINGTON DELAwARE A CORPORATION i OF DELAWARE sror MECHANISM roa KNITTING MACHINES Application filed December 23, 1930. Serial No. 504,289.

This invention relates to a stop' mechanism for knitting machines adapted to arrest operation of the machine upon breakage of a yarn or failure of a yarn supply.

Heretofore numerous devices have been designed to arrest the operation of a knitting machine upon breakage of one or more of the yarns fedthereto in order to prevent breakage of th e'needles by entanglementoof the other yarns. Such attachments are controlled by the yarns in some fashion so that upon breakage of a yarn either gravity or a spring moves a member to a position wherein it coacts with other elements to effect of the machine.

It is the object of the present inventionto.

provide an attachment mounted on a rotating part of a rotary knitting machine and adapt ed upon breakage of a yarn, more particularly 2 the'body yarn, to move under the action of" the yarnany great strains. The advantage of the absence of springs lies in the fact that not only does the dynamic tension on the yarn prevent operation but the static as well, since even though the dynamic tension is considerably greater than the static tension, as vthe. machine slows down the force tending to displace the controlling member is simultaneously decreased. 7

Other. objects of the invention, relating particularlyto details of'construction, will be apparent from the following description read in conjunction'with the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a front elevation p'artly'in section of a portion of a circular knitting machine embodying. the invention in a'preferred form;

ppa

July 19, 1930. In a machine of this charm 'flexible lever 12 formedof bent wire prefer Fig. 2 is a side elevation looking at Fig.1 from the right; a i

Fig. 3- is a plan view of certain parts of the mechanism illustrating details; and,

Fig. dis a section on the plane indicated by the line 44 in Fig. 1. i I

The machine which is illustrated is of the rotary cam type, a body yarn 2 being fed from a suitable rotating supply through rotating guides to the needles 4 mounted in afixed cylinder to bereciprocated by the rotating cams. The usual sinkers and other elements cooperate with the needles forthe production of stitches in the'usual fashion. One type of machine to which theinvention isparticularly adapted and in the operation of which it isv found particularly advantageous is the machine illustratedinmy'prior application, Serial Number 469,056, filed ter, in which w'raping is performed, breakage of the body yarn is particularly liable to produce a destructive disarrangement of; the needles if operation should thereafter continue'forany prolonged period of-time. The body yarn 2 is fed to the needles. through space-d aligned guide'eyes 6 carried by a rotating part of the machine. Pivoted to this-rotating part of the machine at 10 is a ably pivoted at 10 on a stud by the formation of'convolutions as shown. This lever 12carri'es at its outer'end an eye-14 capableofbeing moved into alignment with the eyes 6 anda'rranged to receive, in series therewith, the body yarn The lever 12is extended be yond the pivot as indicated at 16 t0 format'ail portion adapted to engage with a' part of the member 8 forming a stop as indicated-at 1 8 in Fig. 3.

A Wire member 20 is carried by one'arniof alever 22 pivoted on afixed pivot and having another arm carrying a vertically extending pin 24. This pin is normallyadaptedto engage Within a depression 26 formed atthe end of a lever 28 having a fixed pivot at 301 The lever 28 isurged by a light spring 32 in a clockwise direction as viewedin' Fig. 3. The actionof this spring is resisted andovercome',

however, by'engagement'of step on the lever 28 by the upper end 36 of an upright lever 88 pivoted at 40 to the frame and urged in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in Fig. 2 by a strong spring 42. It is to be 5 noted that this result is achieved by the fact that engagement of 36 with the step 34 occurs laterally of the pivot 80 so that the tendency of lever 38 is to rotate lever 28 in a counterclockwise direction until its end 26 engages the pin 24. The various figures show the parts in the positions occupied during normal operation of the machine.

The lower end of lever 38has a path of movement so that when released it willengage a laterally extending pin 44 carried by an upright spindle 46 which also carries the arm 48 arranged to be engaged by a cam on the main cam disc of the machine to effect stopping of the machine after a cycle of operations. 1

The stop mechanism which is of a preferred usual typeis illustrated particularly in Figs. 1 and 4. The spindle 46 carries at its lower end an arm 50 having a bifurcated end engaging an upright pin 52 carried by a latching lever 54 pivoted at 55 to the stop mechanism supporting bracket. A spring 56 normally urges this lever in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in plan. Such {l movement is limited by engagementof a pin 58 carried by the lever 54 with a projection 60 carried by the belt shipper 62.

' The belt shipper 62 is mounted to slide transversely of the machine upona rod 66 being acted upon by a compression spring 64 coiledabout the rod. An upstanding lug 68 engages a downwardly extending lug 70 carried by the lever 54 so as to limit the movement of the belt shipper under the action of the spring during operation of the machine and thereby maintain the belt on the fast pulley. The belt shipper is designed to be moved against the action of the spring 64 by engagement of a projection 72 thereof by the upwardly extending arm 74 of a manually operable bell crank pivoted at 76 to the brack et and provided with a handle 78 which may be engaged by an operator for manual manipulation. The upper end of arm 74 is proengaging a sloping cam surface 80 on the lever 54. A stop 82 is provided on the lever 54 to limit movement of the bell crank when manually manipulated to stop operation of the machine.

Loose and fast pulleys with which the belt controlled by the shipper cooperates are indicated at 84 and 86 respectively.

During normal operation the lever 12 occupies the full line position indicated in Fig. 3. Being very light, even though the machine is operating at a hi h speed very little tension is applied to the yarn 2 passing through the eye 14 thereof. The yarn there:

fore maintains the lever in substantially the vided with a rearwardly directed extension.

full line position illustrated. When rotating in this position it clears the member 20.

If now the body yarn breaks, the lever 12 will be swung centrifugally outwardly to the dotted line position illustrated in Fig. 8 until the tail portion 16 thereof engages the stop 18. It will thus be backed up and upon engagement with the member 20 will cause movement of the lever 22 to disengage the pin 24 from the notch 26. -'When thisoccurs the lever 38 under the action of spring 42 will swing the lever 28 out of its way and will then engage the pin 44 causing the latch lever 54 to be moved until lug is disengaged from lug 68. Thereupon the spring 64 will move the belt shipper drawing the belt upon the loose pulley. The machine will accordingly stop.

fter the ends of the broken yarn. are now secured together, or the exhausted supply is replenished, the operator will'pull the lower end of lever 38 forwardly until its upper end clears the notch 34. a spring 32 will swing the lever 28 in a clockwise direction and lever 22 may be rocked to bring the pin 24 into the notch 26. Upon release of the lever 38 the notch 26 will be held in tight engagement with the pin 24. The machine may then be'started by rocking the bell crank 7 4 in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from the front of the machine,

thereby moving the belt shipper back tothe posit-ion illustrated in full lines. As this position is assumed the lug 68 will clear lug 70 and the latch lever will be rocked by spring 56. It is to be noted that with the stop mechanism illustrated, the machine may be stopped at any time by movement of the bell crank in a reverse directionso that its end 74 acts upon the cam surface to rock the lever 54 in the same fashion as it would be rocked by the oscillation of spindle 46. It will be seen, therefore, that stopping of the machine either manually or by engagement of lever 48 by a suitable cam will take place independently .of the attachment which is operative upon breakage of a yarn or failure of a supply.

The attainment of the advantage pointed out above, namely that the strain by the lever 12 is zero when the machine is at rest, will be obvious. Of course, the strain even at relatively high speeds of operation is very small due to the light weight of the lever 12.

What I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a knitting machine having a circular series of needles, means cooperating therewith to form stitches, circularly moving Thereupon the ice means for guiding yarn tothe needles, and

stopping mechanism, circularly moving controlling means including a flexible lever pivoted to rotating part of the machine, normally restrained by the guided yarn, and mounted to move centrifugally when the restraint is removed, a lever, a spring tending u to move the lever to cause the stopping mechanism to arrest operation of the machine, and detent means holding the lever against the spring action, said detent means being arranged to be tripped by engagement by one end of the flexible lever when moved centrifugally the opposite end of the lever being stopped by a part of the machine.

2. In a knitting machine having a circular series of needles, means cooperating therewith to form stitches, circularly moving means for guiding yarn to the needles, and stopping mechanism, circularly moving controlling means including a lever pivoted on a vertical axis to a rotating part of the machine, normally restrained by the guided yarn, and mounted to move centrifugally when the restraint is removed, and means actuated by such movement of the lever for causing the stopping mechanism to arrest operation of the machine.

3. In a knitting machine having a circular series of needles, means cooperating therewith to form stitches, circularly moving means for guiding yarn to the needles, and stopping mechanism, circularly moving controlling means including a lever pivoted on a vertical axis to a rotating part of the mastopping mechanism, circularly moving conmounted to move centrifugally when the restraint is removed, a latching lever arranged to be moved by impact with the flexible lever when the latter is moved centrifugally, said latching lever having a rounded portion, a I

third lever normally engaging and restrained by said rounded portion but arranged to be released when the, latching lever is moved, and means operable upon release of the third lever to cause the stopping mechanism to arrest operation of the machine. 7

In testimony of which invention, I have hereunto set my hand, at Wilmington, Del., on this 19th day of December, 1930.

STANLEY R. SHELMIRE.

chine, normally restrained by the guided yarn, and mounted to move centrifugally when the restraint is removed, a lever, a spring tending to move the lever to cause the stopping mechanism to arrest operation of the machine, and detent means holding the lever against the spring action, said detent means being arranged to be tripped by engagement by the lever when moved centrifugally.

4. In a knitting machine having a circular series of needles, means cooperating therewith to form stitches, circularly moving means for guiding yarn to the needles, and stopping mechanism, circularly moving controlling means including a resilient lever pivoted to a rotating part of the machine, normally restrained by the guided yarn, and mounted to move centrifugally when the restraint is removed, a latching lever arranged to be moved by impact with the resilient lever when the latter is moved centrifugally, a pin carried by the latching lever, a third lever normally abutting the pin but released 5. In a knitting machine having a circular series of needles, means cooperating therewith to form stitches, circularly moving means for guiding yarn to the needles, and 

